Police: Additional arrests 'not likely' in Parisot case

Published 7:15 pm, Tuesday, October 2, 2012

WILTON -- While an investigation into the death of Nicholas Parisot is still ongoing, more arrests are not likely, police said on Tuesday.

Parisot, 13, died on June 13, 2008, while riding his off-road dirt bike on trails behind his grandmother's home between Hillbrook Road and Hickory Hill Road in Wilton. The Wilton teen struck a rope that was strung across the trail, resulting in his death. The death was ruled a homicide by police.

On Aug. 23, a juvenile was charged with second-degree manslaughter in Parisot's death. The suspect, whose name is not being disclosed by police because of his age, was taken into custody in California by Wilton Police detectives and California police officials, according to authorities. The juvenile suspect is a former Wilton resident, who currently resides in Placentia, Calif.

Detectives from the Wilton Police Department transported the juvenile back to Connecticut on Sept. 19, following the waiver of extradition proceedings, according to police. The suspect was arraigned at the Superior Court for Juvenile Matters in Bridgeport on Sept. 20.

Court officials declined to comment on what transpired during the arraignment since the suspect is a minor. Numerous phone calls to a Bridgeport attorney, who represents the suspect's family in a civil dispute about the death, were not returned at press time.

"We don't stop investigating until the case is closed," said Wilton Police Deputy Chief Robert Crosby.

Crosby said Tuesday that, based on information Wilton Police have collected, additional arrests are not likely at this time.

If necessary, police may interview more people to seek any additional information that may confirm the state's case against the juvenile suspect, said police.

"If there's more people to talk to, we'll talk to them up until conviction, and maybe even after, depending if there's more to find out," said Crosby.

The juvenile was remanded without bond per order of the court to the juvenile detention center in Bridgeport, according to police.

In 2009, Parisot's parents, Rick Parisot and Kate Throckmorton, filed a civil suit against Glenn and Barbara Knight, formerly of Wilton, and their son, claiming the "willful and malicious conduct" of the minor caused the death of Nicholas Parisot. The civil suit, which seeks more than $15,000 in damages, alleges the Knight's son "strung a rope across a trail in the area of the woods to the rear of his family's property."

The court document claims the then pre-teen "tied the rope to two trees on each side of the trail to create a sudden and unavoidable blockage of the trail, creating a dangerous condition on the trail that he knew was likely to cause physical injury to persons riding motorized bikes on the trail."

The Knight family responded to the allegations in early 2010, by way of special defense, stating "injuries or damages were proximately caused by the negligence of the plaintiffs decedent Nicholas R. Parisot at said time and place he failed to keep a proper lookout."

The court documents also claim Parisot "failed to keep his motorized bike under reasonable and proper control, he was operating his motorized bike at an excessive or unreasonable rate of speed for the conditions and he failed to exercise reasonable for his own safety under all the circumstances then and there existing."

According to the Town of Wilton, Glenn and Barbara Knight sold their home at 97 Hickory Hill Road in Wilton on March 2, 2010, for $1,030,000 and moved to Placentia.